The COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 crisis represent impressive motivating forces for advancement, change, evolution, and improvement at a global level. The study focuses on the OECD latest developments in international tax reform work on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) in the courageous attempt to promote novel global initiatives for responsible tax and to support ambitious global actions for responsible tax principles. The results show the need to establish fiscally responsible businesses as a result of COVID-19 pandemic shock, thus taking back control of countries' tax systems by putting an end to corporate tax evasion and tax havens. The findings address the importance of being in line with tax principles, encouraging responsible financial transactions and behaviors.
TopIntroduction
Nowadays, the European Commission (EC) is seriously concerned about the organizations’ actions taken in order to protect human beings and the environment, based on two of the most valuable principles that should govern all business activities at the European Union’s (EU) level as well as at a global level, namely: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) (European Commission, 2021a).
What is more, both CSR and RBC have become integrating priorities on the EU agenda, and the strategies promoted by the EU that are meant to enable both CSR and RBC are constantly updated and highly praised both at the European level and at the international level.
Furthermore, the EC strategy on CSR and RBC are strongly connected with the dissemination of good practices in terms of acting socially responsible as organizations, in the attempt to focus more on the well-being of individuals and the health of our planet. In like manner, it should be stressed that, both in terms of European policies as well as in terms of international strategies, CSR and RBC are regarded as integrating points in key areas such as, education, training, and research, due to their high value and undeniable implications for all the major fields, namely: social, political, economic, and financial.
Based on the EC’s documentation, acting socially responsible as an entity, as an organization, implicates being aware of all the actions taken and also of the fact that all these actions and activities will have, in the end, both positive and negative impacts for the human lives and the environment, thus referring to the manner in which a company affects the society itself (European Commission, 2021a). In continuation, also derived from the EC’s documentation, it should be underlined that CSR is highly important for the society as a whole, for the enterprises and for the EU economy (European Commission, 2021a). In like manner, having and promoting a RBC has been defined as “making a positive contribution to economic, environmental and social progress”, focusing on “achieving sustainable development and avoiding and addressing adverse impacts related to an enterprise’s direct and indirect operations, products or services” (OECD, 2011; European Commission, 2021a).
In this particular matter, the EC’s documentation on “Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible Business Conduct” takes into consideration numerous consistent aspects, such as (European Commission, 2021a) (see Table 1. Influences derived from the European Commission’s principles on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Responsible Business Conduct (RBC)):